Edge of Darkness

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Plot: Young nuclear scientist Emma Craven gets shot by drive-by killers while next to her Boston cop Dad Thomas (Mel Gibson.) The police think that Thomas was the target, but Thomas digs into his daughter's life, and soon finds the daughter's employer Northmoor is an evil corporation with ties to the CIA. The CIA brings in fixer Darius Jedburgh (Ray Winstone) who drinks wine, smokes Cuban cigars, and quotes literature as he runs the body count up. 

Review: This is a who-done-it thriller that ends like a spy movie. Aside from a few events that get the story moving, the plot is pretty well written and clever. Mel Gibson delivers a good performance even though it is hard to picture any real Dad acting like Thomas Craven did. The scene stealer is Ray Winstone as the Jedburgh the fixer. He was excellent in every scene, and I'd like to see him star in a sequel. The directing and photography are solid.

Cast: Mel Gibson, Ray Winstone

Directed by: Marty Campbell

Rating: 3.0 flasks; the film does not aspire to be great, but it is fun at what it does. Gibson and Winstone do a great job.


More: This is remake of a British mini-series from 1985 about a British cop investigating the death of his activist daughter. 

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Moon

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Plot: Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is an astronaut who works alone on the dark side of the moon mining nuclear fuel to send back to earth. Gerty (voiced by Nicholas Cage) is a robot who generally helps him. Sam is waiting for a supply craft to come to take him back to earth to see his wife and daughter. When Sam is injured in an accident, we learn that the Evil Corporation that owns the mine is using Sam in a clever but immoral way.

Review:Moon is a science fiction movie where one man is asked to sacrifice in isolation so that the whole of the earth can live with abundant fuel. On the other hand, that man has a terrible and short life, and his employer lies to him to make his life bearable.

The film has its slow parts, and reveals its secrets carefully. Happily this is not another evil robot movie where Sam has to fight the computer as in 2001. In this movie Gerty is a helpful bystander.

I thought the ending was excellent. It gave a nice close to the action.

Sam Rockwell gives a good performance and he is on screen almost constantly.

Cast: Sam Rockwell

Written and directed by:  Duncan Jones

Rating: 2.5 flasks


[Big Spoiler] I want to believe that the real Sam living out his life on earth. The movie is about what rights do synthetic clones have, and can you treat them worse than regular people.  It brings up issues of slavery or humane treatment for animals.

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It's Complicated

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Plot: Jane (Meryl Streep), a mom with three college age kids, gets in a love triangle with her ex-husband Jake (Alec Baldwin) and her architect Adam (Steve Martin.) Sitcom comedy occurs with the Jake's new wife (Lake Bell), pot smoking, sex scenes, and erotic, midnight croissant making.

Review: Most of the movie is treacle-sweet and forgettable. There are about three scenes that are very funny, but these are over weighed by the truly dreadful and cringe-worthy. In the beginning Alec Balwin's character is dynamic and fun, but that gets old. Meryl Streep has a some good facial acting, but not enough, and the dialog is awful. Like a high school skit, or a soon-to-be-cancelled TV sitcom.

Cast: Meryl Streep, Alex Baldwin, Steve Martin

Crew: written and directed by Nancy Meyers, who should have hired a professional writer.

Rating: 1.5 flasks


More: I want to have a vegetable garden like Meryl Streep's.

Even more: Alec Baldwin's nude scene with the MacBook is an instant classic.


Yet more: I liked the catty girlfriends. The best part, not counting the vegetable garden.

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The Road

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Plot: After an apocalypse that destroys civilization and kills 99% of the people a man (Viggo Mortensen) and his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) travel The Road looking for food and warmth. Along they way they meet bandits, cannibals, scavenge for food and crawl in the mud.

Review:.The best part is the steady enduring will to find survive that the man and the boy have as they tread down The Road. The visualization of the story on big screen create a heavy emotional burden -- worse than I felt reading the book. The art direction is of good quality, but the dead trees and barren landscapes got me down.

Smit-McPhee is a good child actor. Mortensen's performance is "one-note," and I don't understand why anyone would consider him for an Oscar.

The key question is whether this dreariness is worth it because something makes The Road worthwhile. After the film, you can't help but think about what I should do in those circumstances. Would I be one of the "good guys carrying the fire," or one of the other guys? My wife likes the theological aspects like what would we think about God if the world were as bad as this? Of course this bleak world is a metaphor for our own world -- Do we all plod through a bleak existence with no hope? What keeps us going?

Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Charlize Theron

Crew: directed by John Hillcoat; based on the book Cormac McCarthy

Rating: 2.5 flasks; plus 0.5 for its thoughtfulness minus 0.5 for its dreariness.


More: Most likely the darkest and dreariest movie I have seen in my life. If you can think of a darker one, leave me a comment.

Sherlock Holmes

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Plot: Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr) and Dr. Watson (Jude Law) chase and defeat a satanist, Lord Blackwell (Mark Strong), who is bent on taking over the British Empire and then the world. The movie's Sherlock is an action hero in addition to being a super-detective.  

Review: Sherlock Holmes is a fast-moving, chaotic movie that lacks strong characters and a strong story. We never learn what makes any of the characters tick especially the lady villian Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams). What did she and Holmes have going on? There is no chemistry between the main characters, especially between Holmes and Watson. There was not enough of Downey's great facial acting.

Holmes trademark is in-depth observations that show how he knew seemingly unexplainable things, and he did that in this movie. I found these explanations arbitrary and dumb -- like a Star Trek character explaining how warp drive works. This made Holmes even less human.

On the bright side the art direction is superb. It was interesting to see a re-imagining of the Holmes story. This was  far more fast paced than the BBC TV series.

Cast: Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law, Rachel McAdams

Crew: directed by Guy Ritchie; based on the classic books by Arthur Conan Doyle

Rating: 2.0 flasks


More: The fact that this Holmes could fight as well as think made him more like Batman, and even less human.

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Up in the Air

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Plot: This is a tragic satire about Ryan who lives his life avoiding commitment, avoiding empathy, and avoiding personal relationships. Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) spends 325 days a year flying around the country and the world, and is only comfortable when he is away from home. He gives inspirational talks about being unattached to possessions and people. His job is firing people. In the movie, he teaches young Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick) his job, and he meets Alex Goran (Vera Farmiga) who is seemingly as unattached and afraid of commitment as he is. 

Review: This movie is a high concept satire of modern living. It shows people superficially connected, but actually very alone. Because it is so high concept, the characters in the movie don't really make sense as people. There is no 35-40 year old woman with Alex Goran's life situation at all -- period. The Alex of the beginning of the movie giving the sad advice to Natalie is not the same Alex as we meet at the end of the movie.

Ryan goes to his niece's wedding, and seems to have a meaningful experience, but then what?

The film gets points for ambition. The greatest image is Ryan (Clooney) alone in the hotel window at high. The film is really saying that people need the people they carry in their"back packs," to make life meaningful even though Ryan doesn't get it. I called Ryan soul-less; my wife asked me what I meant by that. This movie is an exploration of soul-lessness.

Cast: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick

Crew: directed and co-written by Jason Reitman based on the novel by Walter Kim

Rating: 2.5 flasks


More: I have often said that no one makes a movie or book about what it is really like in the business world, and this is not it, but it does come close to addressing some of the issues of traveling a lot. Kim's novel is a lot more like the real business world. I might read it. 

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Best Movies of 2009

1. The Hurt Locker - 4 flasks:  A gripping film that had me so wrapped up in the tension I was tired by the end.

2. Avatar - 4 flasks: A great time at the movies with epic sweep

3. Rachel Getting Married - 3.5 flasks: Great dialog, loved Anne Hatheway.

4. Sunshine Cleaning - 3.5 flasks: A serious comedy about a couple of girls trying to get by. Engaging.

5. Invention of Lying - 3.5 flasks: A fantasy satire with Ricky Gervais that starts funny, and  then digs deep into religion and philosophy.

6. Ponyo  - 3.25 flasks: Sincere, adorable, cute. If you can't handle cute, see Hurt Locker.

7. Duplicity - 3.0 flasks: Intelligent spy thriller with Clive Owen and Julia Roberts

8. Watchmen - 3.0 flasks: An intelligent comic book movie

9. The Proposal - 3.0 flasks: Best romantic comedy of the year; gotta love Sandra

10. Public Enemies - 3.0 flasks: Great work by Johnny Depp and director Michael Mann

Honorable mention - all 3.0 flasks:
The Surrogates, Julie & Julia, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Extract, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, This is It, and Star Trek.
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That is my opinion. I suppose I will still see some officially 2009 Oscar films before Oscar night, but for the year 2009 that is how I see it.
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